5 Chicago Bears who need to step up to keep their jobs

This Chicago Bears Player Must Step Up: Al-Quadin Muhammad, DE

Another player who needs to step up over the last few games or be looking for a new team in 2023 is Al-Quadin Muhammad. Muhammad is in a different spot than Byron Pringle though in that he was signed to a two-year deal. Muhammad signed a two-year, $8 million dollar deal. His salary cap hit for 2023 is $4.5 million, but his dead cap should the Chicago Bears decide to cut him is only $500,000. He’s clearly a cut candidate for 2023 based on his 2022 performance.

In 11 games, Muhammad only has one sack. One. That is not what you want from your starting defensive end. This scheme was never great at producing sacks — even in Indianapolis. The Colts had 33 sacks in 2021, 40 in 2020, 41 in 2019 and 38 in 2018 under Matt Eberflus as defensive coordinator. The best the team finished was 12th in 2020.

Everyone thought that Muhammad would perform better or at least as well as he did in 2021 for the Colts. Last season, he finished with six sacks, 48 combined tackles (32 solos) and seven tackles for loss. He doesn’t even have a tackle for loss and only has nine pressures on the year. Muhammad will need to start wrecking offensive linemen and come away with at least five sacks to finish off the year if he wants any chance at returning in 2023.